Long rides man. I did the 125 but my wife did the 250. I could not imagine making the turn to do that loop around Bachelor. She ended up doing a few 300+ mile weeks during her peak. The swim was laughably short, so it's hard to give good advise on that except to say it was my favorite, and most beautiful swim ever. The run starts with a long sustained climb up to Tetherow before it rolls for a bit then back down into town. Not too much of a problem except the fact that you've just ridden a ridiculous distance. All in all it's the best race I've ever done.Oh yeah, 12/27 with a standard worked for me.

I want the belt buckle too. To finish under 11 hours is going to be a challenge. I have been using the Ironman Plan from this website. I have allot of work to do on the swim. I am worried about the bike that I have to do the race. Its a Trek road bike, I really want to get a Tri bike that has all the bells and whistles. I think I might be a little intimidated showing up to do the race with a road bike vs. a Triathlon bike.

I wouldn't worry much about how you'll look on your road bike. Most likely you will be glad to be on a road bike during the climbs. I looked at other discussions on line and most people that had both road and tri really debated which to use. I have both and will use my tri if I change to a compact, if not I'm riding my road bike which is really basic Lemond.

Map on website is not detailed. It shows going around Mt Bachelor & net elevation gain but doesn't have an elevation graph. Is it well paved or chipped sealed for 223km ? (map says nat. forest road so...)

I was in Bend for the Pacific Crest weekend and did one loop of the bike. I'd ridden much of the course before but wow, it is intimidating to think that we'll be doing it twice.

The climbs aren't too steep and depending on your riding style don't really require getting out of your seat but they are long slogs. I rode in with the temp in the low 90's and it was hot. I also was surprised at how the altitude affected me at toward the summit.

The pavement on the Cascade loop highway is good but the portion on Road 40 is rough and feels slow.

Should be a great race and now I need to forget how hard it was and work on getting stronger for September.